youlead youth employment and business start-up program sri
TRANSCRIPT
YouLead – Youth Employment and Business Start-Up Program Sri Lanka
Quarterly Progress Report April 01, to June 30, 2019
Submission Date: July 30, 2019
Agreement Number: AID-383-LA-17-000
Agreement Period: June 02, 2017 to June 21, 2021
AOR Name: Nihani Riza
Submitted by: International Executive Service Corps (IESC)
1900 M Street NW, Suite 500
Washington, DC 20036
Submitted by: International Executive Service Corps (IESC)
1900 M Street NW, Suite 500
Washington, DC 20036
This quarterly report is made possible by the support of the American people through the United States
Agency for International Development (USAID). The contents are the sole responsibility of IESC and do
not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government.
Prepared under Cooperative Agreement No. AID-383-LA-17-00001
The Youth Employment and Business Start-up Project (YouLead)
IESC Contact: Andrea Patrick
Associate Vice President
International Executive Service Corps (IESC)
1900 M Street, NW Suite 500
Washington, DC 20036
Tel: (202) 589 2600
Email: [email protected]
CONTENTS
List of Acronyms ........................................................................................................ 1
1. Activity Overview .............................................................................................. 5
1.1 Program Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 5
2. Activity Implementation Milestones and Progress ...................................... 6
2.1.1 Program Operations and Administration ........................................................................................... 9
2.1.2 Technical activities .................................................................................................................................. 11
Component 1: Increase youth employability skills in targeted sectors ............................ 11
Component 2: Improved Quality, Relevance, and Delivery of TVET ............................... 22
Component 3: Increase Prospects for Successful Self-Employment ................................. 25
Outreach .......................................................................................................................................................... 29
2.1.3 Status of Subawards and Subcontracts .............................................................................................. 30
2.1.4 Volunteer Assignments ......................................................................................................................... 30
2.2 Implementation Challenges and Lessons Learned .............................................................. 31
2.3 Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) Update ........................................................ 32
3. Integration of Cross Cutting Issues and USAID Forward Priorities ........ 33
3.1 Gender Equality and Female Empowerment ........................................................................ 33
4. Planned Interventions for the Next Quarter (FY19 Q4) ........................... 33
5. Financial Management ........................................................................................ 36
6. Cost Share and Leverage................................................................................... 36
Annex A: AMELP Progress Summary .................................................................. 38
Annex B: TraiNet Report ...................................................................................... 41
Annex C: Success Story ......................................................................................... 42
Annex D: Success Story ......................................................................................... 44
Annex E: Success Story .......................................................................................... 46
List of Acronyms
ADB
Asian Development Bank
AO Agreement Officer
A2F Access to finance
AmCham
AMELP
American Chamber of Commerce
Activity Monitoring Evaluation Plan
AMHELP Annual Monitoring, Evaluation & Learning Plan
ASAP Accelerated Skills Acquisition Project (USAID)
ASSET Advancing Specialized Skills for Economic Transformation project
ASU Arizona State University
AVP Associate Vice President
BDC Business Development Center
BEC Berendina Employment Center
BIZ+ VEGA/Biz Plus Program (USAID)
CBT Competency Based Training
CCC
Ceylon Chamber of Commerce
CCI Chamber of Construction Industry
CDD
Career Development Director
CEPA Centre for Poverty Analysis
CEO
Chief Executive Officer
CIDA Construction Industry Development Authority
CILT Chartered Institute of Transport and Logistics
CISC Construction Industry Skills Council
COO
Chief Operating Officer
COP
COYLE
Chief of Party
Chamber of Young Lanka Entrepreneurs
CPCCI Central Province Chamber of Commerce & Industry
CSR Corporate Social Responsibility
CV Curriculum Vitae
DCA Development Credit Authority
DCLK
Diversity Collective Sri Lanka
DME Department of Man Power and Employment
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DQA Data Quality Assurance
DTET Department of Technical Education and Training (part of MSDVT)
DVPT Development
EAFD Entrepreneurship and Access to Finance Director
ED
Entrepreneurship Development
EG Economic Growth
ETD Extension and Training Division (Department of Agriculture)
F&B Food & Beverage
FEG Facilitating Economic Growth
GC
Global Communities
GCExILE Global Center of Excellence for Innovation in Learning and
Education
GIZ German Aid (Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit)
GoSL Government of Sri Lanka
GPW Great Place to Work
HO Home Office
HR
Human Resources
HRDO Human Resource Development Officer
HRM Human Resource Management
ICE Innovate, Creativity & Entrepreneurship
ICT Information and communications technology
ICTA Information and Communications Technology Agency
ICTISC ICT Industry Skills Council
IESC
International Executive Service Corps
IFC International Finance Corporation
IIT Informatics Institute of Technology
ILO
International Labor Organization
INGO
ISO
International Non-Governmental Organization
International Organization of Standardization
ISSCs Industry Sector Skills Councils
IT Information Technology
JAFF
Joint Apparel Association Forum
JK John Keells
JKH John Keells Holdings
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KRA-O Keells Retail Online
LIM Lebanon Investment in Microfinance
LMS
Learning Management System
LOP Life of Project
M&E Monitoring and evaluation
MDCCI Matara District Chamber of Commerce and Industry
MEL Monitoring, evaluation, and learning
MOE Ministry of Education
MOU Memorandum of Understanding
MSDVT Ministry of Skills Development and Vocational Training
MSME Micro, small, and medium enterprises
NAITA National Apprentice and Industrial Training Authority
NCS
National Competency Standards
NEDA National Enterprise Development Authority
NOFO Notice of funding opportunity
NVQ National Vocational Qualification
NYC National Youth Corps (part of the Ministry of National Policies)
NYSC National Youth Services Council
OJT On the Job Training
PD Project Director
PIRS Performance Indicator Reference Sheet
PLC Private Limited Company
PM-VOTEC The PM’s Committee on Vocational and Technical Education
PPD Public Private Dialogue
PPP Public Private Partnership
PRD
PWC
Partnership Relationship Director
Price Waterhouse Coopers
RDB Regional Development Bank
RFA Request for applications
RPL Recognition of Prior Learning
S4IG Skills for Inclusive Growth (Australian project)
S4YE Solutions for Youth Employment
SFL Skills for Life
SLF Sri Lanka Foundation
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SLASSCOM Sri Lanka Association of Software and Service Companies
SLITHM
Sri Lanka Institute of Tourism and Hotel Management
SLTDA Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority
SME Small and medium enterprise
SOLID
SOW
Supporting Opportunities in Livelihood Development
Scope of Work
SSDP Sector Skills Development Project (funded by ADB)
TCP The Competitiveness Project (USAID)
TDA Tourism Development Authority
THASL The Hotel Association of Sri Lanka
TITP
TNA
Training Institute for Technology Professionals
Training Need Assessment
TOT Training of trainers
TSC Tourism Skills Council
TVEC Tertiary and Vocational Education Commission
TVET Technical Vocational Education and Training
UA
Union Assurance PLC
UNIVOTEC University of Vocational Training
USA United States of America
USAID
United States Agency for International Development
USG United States Government
VAT Value Added Tax
Verité Verité Research
VPT Vocational Personality Test
VT Vocational Training
VTA Vocational Training Authority (Part of MSDVT)
WCF Women in Construction Forum
WDF Women's Development Federation (Hambantota, Sri Lanka)
WDS
Workforce Development Specialist
WiLAT Women in Logistics and Transport
WUSC World University Service of Canada
YBSL
Youth Business Sri Lanka
YTAI Young Tourism Ambassador Initiative
YPF Young Professionals Forum
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1. Activity Overview
Activity Name: YouLead - Youth Employment and Business Start-
up Program Sri Lanka (YouLead)
Activity Start Date and
End Date:
June 02, 2017 – June 01, 2021
Name of Prime
Implementing Partner:
International Executive Service Corps (IESC)
Agreement Number: AID-383-LA-17-0001
Name of
Subcontractors/Sub-
awardees:
International partners: Arizona State University
(ASU), Global Communities (GC)
Local partners: American Chamber of Commerce
(AmCham), Ceylon Chamber of Commerce (CCC),
Skills for Life (SFL), and Verité Research (Verité)
Government
Counterpart(s):
The Ministry of National Policies, Economic Affairs,
Resettlement and Rehabilitation, Northern
Province Development, Vocational Training and
Skills Development and Youth Affairs (referred to
as MSDVT for consistency with earlier reporting)
Geographic Coverage: Nationwide
Reporting Period: From April 01 to June 30, 2019
1.1 Program Introduction
YouLead is a four-year program focused on enhancing employment and
entrepreneurship opportunities for youth in Sri Lanka. YouLead’s key objectives
are to:
• Work with the public and private sectors to improve the quality and
relevance of vocational and technical training;
• Link youth to productive employment opportunities; and,
• Support the development of youth-led start-up enterprises in Sri Lanka.
The Ministry of National Policies, Economic Affairs, Resettlement and
Rehabilitation, Northern Province Development, Vocational Training and Skills
Development and Youth Affairs (MSDVT) is the project’s counterpart ministry.
YouLead coordinates across other government agencies that play a role in youth
vocational education and employment, including the Ministry of Tourism, the
Ministry of Education, and the Prime Minister’s Office.
YouLead’s core activities are designed to leave behind institutional level capacity
that will align public and private sector incentives, generate greater investment,
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and improve competitiveness in sectors with high employment potential.
YouLead’s regional focus is in the 12 districts with the highest youth
unemployment as identified by the project’s market assessment—Jaffna, Galle,
Kandy, Mannar, Kegalle, Badulla, Kilinochchi, Hambantota, Nuwara Eliya,
Monaragala, Matara, Matale. Following the market assessment and review with
local stakeholders, the priority sectors selected for the project are tourism and
hospitality, construction, Information and Communication Technology (ICT)
trades, and healthcare.
YouLead is committed to working with local public and private sector
stakeholders to build the workforce they require to achieve long-term
commercial success. YouLead works closely with public-sector stakeholders, as
they provide the bulk of Sri Lanka’s vocational training and have unmatched
outreach and infrastructure. YouLead activities are focused on collaborating with
specific Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) authorities
within MSDVT. These authorities are the Tertiary and Vocational Education
Commission (TVEC) as well as the three largest training institutes—the National
Apprentice and Industrial Training Authority (NAITA), the Vocational Training
Authority (VTA), and the Department of Technical Education and Training
(DTET). NAITA is a priority partner, as it has direct links with apprenticeship
opportunities for youth employment.
The skills gap is a complex problem which requires immediate attention. Sri
Lankan youth strive for a life of purpose, dignity, economic stability and
flexibility, while businesses clamor for employees with the right skills and
attitudes.
Sri Lanka is growing rapidly and has plenty of employment opportunities in high-
growth sectors. The tourism and construction sectors alone estimated a need for
approximately 700,000 new employees in the next several years. These
estimates were made before the April attacks, but are largely still valid assuming
the tourism industry recovers in the next 12 months. Yet youth unemployment
still stands at over 20% in many places. Sri Lanka needs interventions to ensure
a tight fit between the skills demanded in a competitive economy and the skills
of its youth.
2. Activity Implementation Milestones and Progress
2.1 Progress and Implementation Status Summary
YouLead completed a number of important activities and achieved results
against indicator targets for the quarter, despite the April 21 Easter Sunday
attacks. The bombings happened at a time when YouLead was actively and
successfully ramping up its trainings in all project areas. This was an
intentional acceleration to lay a strong foundation on which results can be
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built in the project’s latter years and to re-build momentum following the
slow-down caused by the constitutional crisis in October 2018 and the lack of
a formal activity budget in government agencies that limited some planned
work with the public sector.
Recognizing the natural lag between direct interventions and outcomes in a
train-the-trainer focused project, YouLead continued successfully to front load
several activities this quarter or lay the foundation for future successes
despite the Easter bombings:
• Developed or revised three curricula to ensure it is better aligned with
industry needs. This brings the total number of curricula to 56—just
one shy of the life of project target;
• Helped shepherd several of the new and revised curricula through the
validation process, even though that is outside of YouLead’s control;
• Gained commitments via the YouLead-inspired career guidance
working group to standardize and professionalize career guidance
training;
• Exceeded FY 2019 training targets by training 141 trainers and 167
loan officers at financial institutions;
• Helped forestall the collapse of tourism industry employment by
responding quickly to the need for crisis communications support,
moving up the launch of the planned tourism portal, and undertaking
training on soft skills for existing tourism employees to help them keep
their jobs and upskill during the post-crisis lull;
• Successfully re-launched the career fairs two month after the attacks.
Other adjustments made in project interventions to recover quickly from the
slow-down and maximize impacts are listed by project area below.
Career development (components 1 and 2):
• Reduce dependency on international career development volunteer
professionals and mentors;
• Initiate a steering committee on career development that pulls
together all institutions who have or intend to utilize career guidance
professionals;
• Develop a common career guidance curriculum;
• Encourage all participating institutions to require formal training for
career guidance professionals – most TVET institutions have agreed
and the Ministry of Education is still considering how best to
implement;
• Reduce dependency on the planned joint career fairs with the
Department of Manpower and Employment due to their lack of formal
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budget, the public nature of their events, and the requirement for
police permission for the events;
• Introduce career fairs with the National Youth Services Corps;
• Accelerate the introduction and promotion of online psychometric
career testing and guidance – the online system is now active, but
more promotion needs to happen outside of the career fairs that are
now happening inconsistently;
• Introduce career fairs in secondary schools that are not public in
nature; and,
• Recruit local career development mentors and advisors.
New employment (component 1)
• Shift focus with some employers and industries to retaining
employment through coordinated efforts and upskilling. The priority
tourism industry (estimated 100,000 new jobs) is most impacted with
many switching gears 180 degrees and now retrenching. Programs are
being proposed to encourage employers to retain employees, many of
which include training that YouLead can support. Tourism is most
affected, but few industries will escape the likely economic downturn.
Construction, the industry with the largest projected employment
growth, is dealing with stop work orders on most tourism projects. This
shift is necessitated by events, not cost share;
• Create private sector master trainers. This adjustment is already in
progress; and,
• Intensify partnerships with private employers particularly those likely
to recover fastest (e.g. retail grocery).
Curricula development (component 2)
• Reduce dependency on international curriculum developers; and,
• Hire local developers and train others to remove a bottleneck in the
validation and endorsement process. This adjustment has been made.
Training of trainers (component 2)
• Reduce dependency on volunteer trainers;
• Train master trainers who can work directly with private training
institutes;
• Increase/accelerate the use of certified master trainers; and,
• Institutionalize master trainers within the Department of Technical
Education and Training.
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Entrepreneurship (component 3) • Reduce dependency on international entrepreneurship mentors but
retain target for long-term volunteer to initiate assignment when
security profile in Sri Lanka improves; and,
• Accelerate recruitment of local consultants and volunteer mentors but
remove the requirement for volunteers to formally contract with IESC
as the burden of registration to meet cost share requirements seems
to be limiting recruitment success. This will result in local volunteers
contributing time to the YouLead Project, but the value of their time
may not be counted towards YouLead cost share requirement.
2.1.1 Program Operations and Administration
• During this quarter the following personnel changes took place:
• Partnerships Director, Shehara de Silva, left the organization effective
June 01, 2019.
• Partnerships Manager, Vindya Silva, previously an AmCham employee,
was promoted to the key personnel position of Partnerships Director.
• A driver was hired after USAID assigned YouLead a double-cab vehicle.
• Global Communities (GC) hired an Entrepreneurship Manager, Talal Rafi.
• Recruitment for the Partnerships Manager/Associate position is in
progress.
With the above changes, the total staff working on the YouLead project is now
32.
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Revised YouLead Organization Chart
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2.1.2 Technical activities
Component 1: Increase youth employability skills in targeted sectors
Overall Component Objective
The overarching objective of this component is to a) increase youth employability
skills through the development of improved and relevant curricula driven by private
sector demand, and b) improve career counseling that balances youth aspirations
and capabilities with informed guidance on careers available in the marketplace. To
achieve this, YouLead works closely with both the public and private sector to
create stronger linkages and ensures that the vocational training provided to Sri
Lanka’s youth is high quality and focused on the skills that employers most need.
The project is also working closely with the institutions that provide career guidance
to ensure counselors have the right tools, training, and information to effectively
advise youth and their families.
Sub-Component 1.1: Provide Sufficient Awareness of Market Trends,
Demands, and Opportunities
Activity 1.1.1: Market assessment
YouLead and Verité Research (Verité) held multiple discussions to finalize the
revised Scope of Work (SOW) for smaller-sized research projects in year three,
moving away from the original plan to repeat the annual youth and employer
surveys. This decision was based on Verité’s experience, that consecutive large
surveys are unlikely to deliver additional value, and that the inability of MSDVT to
sustain detailed surveys.
Verité will focus its efforts on designing an assessment to develop practical insights
to address issues identified in the Youth Labor Market Assessment 2018. This will
partly be done by applying the findings from international research into a Sri
Lankan context. The assessment will use existing research and analysis of a variety
of data sets to collect data that will be useful for the design of new practical
methods for improving labor force participation, and increasing employment and
entrepreneurial success that YouLead can promote in Year 3 amongst its
stakeholders and the government, including improvements to the delivery and
outcome of the Enterprise Sri Lanka Initiative.
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Activity 1.1.2 Analyze gender dynamics and challenges women face
obtaining apprenticeships
ICT industry. YouLead held discussions during this quarter with Diversity Collective
Sri Lanka (DCLK), an association of professional women in Information and
Communication Technology (ICT) aiming to increase female representation in the
industry. In light of the security situation following the Easter Sunday attacks on
April 21, the Ministry of Education (MoE) has pushed back an ICT student/parent
session to the coming fiscal year. However, YouLead is continuing discussions with
the DCLK to form a partnership to increase awareness among girls and young
women on career opportunities available in the ICT sector.
Activity 1.1.4. Facilitate, strengthen, and institutionalize public-private
coordination for policy and vocational education development
A centerpiece of YouLead’s private sector activities is supporting and coordinating
work with the private sector skills councils/committees in the project’s priority
sectors. Our work with the ICT and construction sectors accelerated during this
quarter, however, the tourism industry faced a major set-back caused by the Easter
Sunday attacks on April 21.
Tourism industry. In the aftermath of the Easter Sunday attacks, the industry
anticipates that hiring will not resume for another 12-18 months. Many hotels have
had to scale back business and lay
off staff. SLITHM and NAITA have
reported that they have been asked
to take back or reassign as many as
2,000 apprentices who were in on-
the-job training programs.
Furthermore, many SME hotels and
guest houses have been severely
affected with some ceasing
operations entirely.
As a result of the negative impact on
tourism, industry priorities have
shifted to focus on crisis management and recovery; priorities have shifted from
creating new jobs to saving existing jobs and encouraging trainees to stay the
course. The Tourism Skills Committee (TSC) and the roadmap developed with
USAID support are the main vehicles for YouLead interventions. Rather than go into
hibernation after the attacks, the TSC dramatically ramped up its activities and
outreach. Shortly after the attacks, the TSC committed to take leadership in three
Young woman takes part in a team building exercise at the soft
skills training
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areas to reduce the impact and ensure a more rapid recovery of employment in the
industry:
1. Managing communications to prospective travelers and the international
tourism trade: As a small, agile, purely private body, the TSC realized that
they could move more quickly and decisively than any other tourism
institution;
2. Lead the development of a crisis recovery and resilience plan: Given that two
of its members were directly impacted by the bombs, the TSC hopes to take
advantage of the heightened attention and concern for the industry to
develop and advocate for changes that will make the tourism both more
resilient if effective overall; and,
3. Continue to take leadership on outreach to youth and professionalizing
employment in the industry despite the setback.
The TSC was quick to react to the tragedy by forming a separate entity called the
Sri Lanka Tourism Alliance (SLTA) comprised of TSC members and other private
sector industry leaders. Its immediate priority was to provide accurate, unbiased
information on the security situation and tourism activities within Sri Lanka to
travelers, tour operators, and communities connected to the tourism industry.
SLTA launched the Love Sri Lanka website on May 10, followed by roll out to related
social media channels the same week with YouLead assistance and USAID
concurrence. A SOW for a web portal focused on encouraging employment in the
tourism industry, which was already
developed, was adapted to add vital
capabilities to reach out to travelers
and the international tourism trade in
an effort to accelerate the recovery
of the industry and employment. The
campaign gained traction with 1,194
followers on Facebook, 1,096 on
Instagram and 68 on Twitter by the
end of this quarter. A Google ads
campaign based on ‘is Sri Lanka safe’
searches delivered 21,824 impressions and covered approximately 80 percent of
safety related searches for Sri Lanka. YouLead played a significant role in the digital
campaign development and content management for the Love Sri Lanka campaign
and contracted a Content Manager, Natasha Gooneratne. YouLead also initiated
Google ads that diverted security minded travelers to accurate and timely
information. An Australian-funded project will pick up the Google ads campaign in
www.lovesrilanka.org launched shortly after the Easter Sunday
attacks
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July and the USAID-funded SAIL project is supporting SLTA with a resource that
can act as its secretariat.
As the situation settles and the industry starts to pick up again, the Love Sri Lanka
website will transform into a one-stop tourism and hospitality portal as originally
planned under the Tourism and Hospitality Roadmap. The Expression of Interest
(EOI) for the portal development was published during the last week of June, and
proposals were pending at the time of reporting.
On the development of a private-sector led recovery and resilience plan, the TSC
has highlighted the need for a crisis response team and recovery plan to deal with
such emergencies in the future. Accordingly, YouLead and the Australian-funded
Market Development Facility (MDF) Projects are engaging two international experts
to design and develop a crisis response team and the crisis recovery plan.
YouLead’s consultant, James MacGregor, is engaged to create the crisis response
team plan while MDF’s consultant Katherine Droga will handle the recovery plan.
The assignments will commence in July 2019 and the plans are expected to be
finalized by the end of next quarter.
On the resumption of outreach and training activities, YouLead conducted a pilot
soft skills program at the University College of Batangala for students of the
Hospitality Management faculty from May 22-23, 2019. A total of 24 young women
and 10 men received practical interactive training in communications, teamwork,
interpersonal skills, assertiveness, and customer interaction. The training was
conducted by local tourism consultant, Srilal Miththapala. The pilot was suggested
by the TSC in a bid to shift the balance from formal training towards soft skills and
problem solving as well as underscore the TSC’s determination to continue to
strengthen and professionalize skills development in the industry despite the crisis.
Construction industry. YouLead
signed an MOU with Siam City
Cement (Lanka) Limited, popularly
known as INSEE Cement, a leading
cement manufacturer in Southeast
Asia. The partnership will initiate a
pioneering island-wide skills
development program for masons
and concrete craftsmen and will be
supported by the Construction
Industry Development Authority
(CIDA) and NAITA.
YouLead inks partnership with INSEE
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ICT industry. YouLead, in partnership with private sector members of the Sri Lanka
Association of Software and Services Companies (SLASSCOM) and the ICT Skills
Council, launched the pilot phase of the Future Bridge Program. The program is an
initiative designed to draw school leavers into the ICT industry and bridge the
prevailing skills gap. A total of 482 students have enrolled in the pilot as of July 15
– 41 percent of them are females and 61 percent come from vocational institutions.
Within the pilot group, twenty percent (96) of the students reached the advanced
level by the end of the quarter and are currently completing their final technical
assessments. The pilot is expected to be completed in December 2019 with
students receiving offers and internship opportunities in early 2020.
YouLead also facilitated two ICT instructor awareness sessions in April 5 and June 7
to create awareness on the ICT industry, career opportunities available to students,
the Future Bridge program and the role of instructors in attracting students to ICT
careers. A total of 48 ICT instructors from the TVET sector participated.
Participating instructors showed commitment to follow through with the next step in
encouraging and motivating students to enroll with the Future Bridge Program.
Bridge-CareerMe integration.
YouLead facilitated discussions to
integrate the CareerMe vocational
personality test with the Future
Bridge Program. The test will allow
students to discover career avenues
that match their skills, abilities and
interests specific to the ICT industry.
The test report will also help
recruiters evaluate student profiles
with a deeper understanding of their
competencies.
Healthcare industry. During this quarter, discussions continued between YouLead
and Kings Hospital, a modern, full-service hospital in Colombo, on providing
technical assistance through a volunteer. The initiative was requested by Kings to
conduct a training of trainers on soft skills for the hospital’s nursing students.
John Keells Holdings (JKH). YouLead partner Arizona State University’s (ASU)
Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College completed the e-learning content for the Keells
Retail Online (KRA-O) platform on 23 July 2018. John Keells Retail Online (JKR-O)
lets employees access the platform at their respective retail outlets and allows the
company to hire and train new employees and upskill current employees. This
improves learning and job performance for youth and retention for the company.
JKR-O is continuing its trainings and an additional 1,615 (759 females and 856
VTA students meet industry professionals through the Future
Bridge program
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males) employees have benefited from new or improved employment through the
e-learning system. This number will be validated and reported in the FY2019 annual
report.
Cargills. Cargills buddy trainers have trained 1,508 new employees during this
quarter. The buddy trainer system was put in place following the TOT by ASU’s
Thunderbird School of Management last year. The training covered capacity
development training programs in two employee tracks: executive and non-
executive leadership. The programs supported the decentralization of training and
included group activities designed to help integrate global best practices in training
and delivery in the Sri Lankan context.
Activity 1.1.5 Coordinate with other USAID & workforce projects
YouLead continued to provide as needed support to the USAID DCA office this
quarter on coordination and communication with Sampath and Hatton National
Banks as well as coordination on training in the tourism industry with two
Australian-funded projects. The project also initiated this quarter a potential
partnership with the USAID youth power project called YouthLead on adding their
youth empowerment and youth leadership functionality and content to the
youlead.lk web portal.
In addition, YouLead took the lead on coordinating donor support for the tourism
industry following the April 21 attacks which brings together four donor-funded
projects with a common purpose.
1. YouLead is currently funding the tourism industry website, content manager,
and a crisis management consultancy that will commence in July;
2. The USAID-funded SAIL project provided access to a crisis communications
expert and is providing a person to run the SLTA secretariat;
3. The Australian-funded MDF project is funding a tourism expert to draft the
recovery and resilience plan; and,
4. The Australian-funded Skills for Inclusive Growth (S4IG) project is funding
crisis management and recovery training for SMEs in tourism.
Activity 1.1.6A. Conduct a marketing campaign to career guidance centers
and schools
YouLead joins forces with Sri Lanka’s largest youth empowerment
institution to revamp career guidance. The YouLead project launched a
comprehensive five-day career guidance training on May 29 with leadership and
career guidance officers from the National Youth Services Council (NYSC). NYSC is
the largest public sector institution focused on building early stage work-readiness
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and soft skills particularly among the rural
poor. Most of its career guidance officers
have no formal training and few, if any,
tools at their disposal. Thirty career
guidance officers representing every district
in Sri Lanka participated. This training was
inspired by a focus group discussion with
more than 45 young women and men
enrolled with NYSC. The discussion,
organized by YouLead, identified a strong
need for more information about in-demand
and emerging careers and how to
effectively apply for job opportunities.
YouLead will work closely with the NYSC to
design the training. The trained officers are now mandated to develop proposals for
how best to expand and improve career guidance in each of their districts within
one month. The plan is to develop a set of sustainable youth volunteers with
YouLead’s assistance who will reach out to their peers and promote the importance
of career testing and guidance.
Activity 1.1.6B. Support and co-brand YouLead with employment and
career fairs
YouLead draws more than 2,400 youth to its first career fairs held after the
April 21 attacks. On the two consecutive Saturdays of June 22 and 29, YouLead,
in coordination with the Department of Manpower and Employment (DME) and
CareerMe, re-launched the popular career fairs in the priority districts of Matara and
Galle in the Southern province. The selection of districts was based, in part, on the
ability to bring together Buddhist and Muslim communities to promote inter-
communal interaction. The Galle Career Fair was supported by 45 private
companies and the event drew more than 800 participants, 58 percent of them
were women. More than 240 youth took the psychometric career test localized by
YouLead and received one-on-one
career guidance from YouLead trained
career development officers. The
Matara career fair drew more than
1,600 women and men. During both
events the participating private
companies conducted on-the-spot
interviews for youth seeking jobs and
training. Seven training institutions
promoted their courses and services in
vocational education. Several YouLead
Young women do the online psychometric test in the first step
to receiving career guidance
Two students of the German Technical College prepare
the engine of the Career Bus
18
trained inspectors from the National Apprentice and Industrial Training Agency
(NAITA) were available to advise youth on apprenticeship opportunities in the
region. These two fairs mark the re-launch of an activity which had been on hold for
a variety of reasons; the constitutional crisis in October 2018, DME’s lack of
program budget earlier in the year, and the April 21 attacks.
Activity 1.1.7 Improve information dissemination on training opportunities
YouLead signed an MOU on June 12 with the Sri Lanka Foundation Institute (SLFI),
the country’s only awarding body for formal career guidance qualification and the
lobbying agency for the Sri Lanka Career Guidance Association.
YouLead was fortunate to be the first ever development project to partner with the
SLFI to offer joint qualifications on a credit transferable agreement to nationally
recognize the Diploma in Career Guidance and Counselling program. The SLFI was
found in 1974 and began its Diploma in Career Guidance course a decade ago.
YouLead will work with SLFI to disseminate information related to vocational
education through the courses and connect TVEC with international vocational and
academic institutions for course accreditation. SLFI will use YouLead developed
vocational video materials in their digital kiosks. These are placed in auditorium
premises that reach approximately 250 people on average per day.
Activity 1.1.8 Hold youth employment and career information forums
YouLead and multiple stakeholders in Bandarawela, Dikwella, Hambantota, Mannar,
Matale, Galle, Matale and Polonnaruwa organized 10 career guidance and
information forums during this quarter. The objective of these programs was to
expose YouLead trained career counsellors to effectively organized career guidance
sessions and provide youth with a novel experience of career guidance and
vocational personality identification. Most of the sessions were organized with
multiple vocational training institutes and private sector representatives to
showcase the courses and industrial demands. The forums added value to
intercommunal harmony after the tense situation in the country following the April
21 attacks. YouLead will continue to conduct similar programs in each district in the
second year of the project.
# Program Name Dates Total No of Youth given
Career Guidance
1 YouLead and NAITA
CG Program (Model I), Polonnaruwa 19 Jun 2019 20
2 YouLead and SLICG
CG Program (Model I), Polonnaruwa 04 May 2019 158
3 YouLead and DME
CG Program (Model I), Galle 22 Jun 2019 245
4 YouLead and DME 29 Jun 2019 297
19
# Program Name Dates Total No of Youth given
Career Guidance
CG Program (Model I), Matara
5 YouLead and District Secretariat
CG Program (Model I), Mannar 11 Jun 2019 142
6 YouLead and CPCCI
CG Program (Gem Awareness), Matale 14 Jun 2019 60
7 YouLead and NYSC
CG Program (Model I), Bandarawela 28 Jun 2019 73
8 YouLead and ICEPMD
CG Program (Model I), Dickwella 04 Apr 2019 126
9 YouLead and NAITA
CG Program (Model I), Badulla 24 Jul 2019 132
10 YouLead and CCICP
CG Program (Model I), Malate 14 Jun 2019 60
Total Youth impacted through Youth Employment and Career information forums this
quarter 1,313
Sub-Component 1.2 - Improve Career Guidance and Counseling
Activity 1.2.1 Establish sustainable, youth-friendly career counseling and
train counselors
YouLead, in partnership with the SLFI and the DME, commenced a tailor made five-
day residential training program on career guidance for DME Human Resource
Development Officers (HRDO) on June 24. The HRDOs carry out regional human
resource development by maintaining a divisional secretariat level job bank and
connecting youth with employment opportunities. They organize regional career
fairs, engage with school career awareness programs and provide one to one career
guidance and parental career guidance at divisional secretariat level.
The training program is a result of a joint training needs analysis and gives priority
to officers who had not received any
formal career guidance training during
the last 10 years. The goal of this
intervention is to provide training and
Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL)
grading to HRDOs. This will
accomplish the outcomes of the
Training Need Assessment (TNA)
identified curriculumwithin a span of
six months and develop 25 district
level master counsellors and nine
provincial level chief master
counsellors as a sustainable plan.
Training sessions begin for career guidance counsellors at the
SLFI
20
Career counselors/ practitioners training. Two trainings were conducted on
June 24 and June 28 for DME HRDOs to introduce them to the psychometric test for
vocational personality
identification, career guidance
theory and new career counseling
practices. YouLead expects the
participants to deliver career
counseling services to the
country’s youth, especially those in
rural areas, during regional career
fairs. A key implementation
challenge identified was the work
priorities of the officers. The
officers are not full-time career
counselors and career counseling
is just one part of their work.
YouLead found that the
mechanism to assess the number
of counselling services provided by
the trainees needs to be
strengthened through
institutionalization. s
Activity 1.2.2 Provide comprehensive, evidence-based online resources
Microsoft Smart Schools initiative digitally empowered by YouLead content.
YouLead and its private sector partners, HeadStart and CareerMe, launched a
program in collaboration with Microsoft on the promotion of career guidance,
entrepreneurship, apprenticeship and vocational career awareness in primary and
secondary schools in Sri Lanka. The
program will connect more than 235
schools, approximately 25,000
school children, and aims to train
over 600 teachers through a digital
course designed to enhance their
general understanding about career
guidance.
Young riggers achieving great heights in the construction industry
21
Sub-Component 1.3 - Provide Foundational Skills Critical to Finding and
Maintaining a Job
Activity 1.3.1 Validate curriculum with the private sector
YouLead continues to work actively with NAITA and TVEC to accelerate the curricula
validation and endorsement process. One curriculum, Guest Relations Officer, was
formally validated during this quarter and endorsed by the TVEC commission along
with the Rigger curriculum. These curricula are being prepared for implementation
starting next quarter.
Activity 1.3.2 Identify and tailor work-readiness curricula to strengthen
employment skills
The seven soft skills modules identified in the previous quarter continue to be
incorporated into curricula revisions based on the NVQ levels required for each
occupation.
Activity 1.3.3 Strengthen public-private partnerships and build new ones
With the re-launch of the career fairs in June, YouLead and the Ceylon Chamber of
Commerce are taking a more proactive role in encouraging private companies to
participate in the job fair/interviews portion of the events. More than 100
companies participated in the Galle and Matara career fairs in partnership with
YouLead and the Department of Manpower and Employment.
Sub-Component 1.4 - Increase Work-Based Learning Opportunities
Activity 1.4.1 Assess the apprenticeship programs provided by TVET
institutions
NAITA and SLITHM, two of the largest trainers of youth for tourism occupations,
have had to withdraw their students from apprenticeship trainings at the request of
the employers following the Easter Sunday attacks in April and the subsequent
negative impact on the tourism and hospitality industry. NAITA estimates that
about 2,000 trainees were withdrawn while SLITHM estimates 1,000 trainees have
been withdrawn from the industry. Apprentices were the first to suffer in terms of
job loss when the hotel industry scaled back their operations due the rapid
decrease in tourist inflows. SLITHM has had to hold a batch of students back from
proceeding to the next level due to this as well.
22
Activity 1.4.2 Increase the number of internship and apprenticeship
opportunities
NAITA inspector training remained on pause during the quarter following the
October constitutional crisis and the lack of an implementation budget during the
first half of 2019.
Component 2: Improved Quality, Relevance, and Delivery of TVET
Overall Component Objective
The overall objective of this component is to work closely with the MSDVT and
training institutes, both public and private, to improve the delivery of vocational
education in Sri Lanka. To achieve this objective, YouLead is working to build the
capacity of teachers and vocational institutions. Project activities are designed to
ensure that the courses offered are those most in demand by the marketplace and
that the instructors that deliver trainings that are of high quality both in the content
and the delivery of instructional materials.
Sub-Component: 2.1: Improve Relevance of TVET Delivery
Activity 2.1.2 Identify and implement changes to TVET courses
YouLead identified the key changes required in previous quarters to be: 1) more
skilled instructors; 2) lengthier practical and apprenticeship modules; 3) shorter
overall training duration; and 4) more and better calibrated soft skills training.
Changes 2 and 4 are being integrated in all new and revised curricula and Change 1
is being addressed through the master trainer activity. The project has only been
able to shorten overall training times for private trainings (e.g. the youth tourism
ambassador training program) thus far as the structure and employment models of
the public sector institutes are more rigid and tend to require at least six-month
course durations. The focus with public sector curricula is to reduce the classroom
portion, add more soft skills training and improved pedagogy. Through the curricula
development, validation and revision process, YouLead continues to make the
courses more relevant to the evolving needs of business, stress more competency-
based outcomes, add more tailored soft skills modules, encourage a larger
proportion of on-the-job training, and remove elements of the training that can be
more effectively learned on-the-job.
Activity 2.1.3a - Review existing curricula and align to industry demands
During the quarter, three curricula were revised based on industry feedback and
submitted for validation and endorsement:
1. Guest Relation Officer
2. Housekeeping Supervisor
23
3. Laboratory Assistant
The Automobile Mechanic curriculum was completely overhauled, and a new
curriculum has been developed.
Activity 2.1.3b – Support new and better employment with high-growth
private employers and private training institutes
YouLead strengthened its ties with the construction industry by signing an MOU with
Siam City Cement (Lanka) Limited/INSEE Cement to initiate a pioneering skills
development program for masons and concrete craftsmen. Similarly, YouLead
developed scopes of work to deepen the partnerships with Access Engineering and
Maga Construction focused on bringing new technologies and building techniques
for scaffolding and concrete form work.
YouLead’s partnership activities with the Amrak Institute, a private education
service provider, which was established to provide training and employment for
youth in paramedical areas, were delayed this quarter. Amrak is currently facing
the following challenges preventing them from starting operations.
▪ TVEC has advised Amrak to seek validation from the Sri Lanka Medical Council
(SLMC) under of Ministry of Health. SLMC is a statutory body established to
maintain academic and professional standards, discipline and ethical practice
by health professionals who are registered in Sri Lanka.
▪ SLMC feedback has been slow due to many layers of internal protocol for
approval process.
▪ SLMC rejected Amrak’s proposal to conduct courses of 12 months or less and
has advised the institute to extend the courses to a minimum of 24 months
including online modules.
YouLead will continue to monitor the progress of the approval process of MOH in
order to initiate the curricula validation with TVEC, but a 24-month course duration
does not encourage YouLead support since it is too long to be able to count
employment from the training unless there is a paid internship component.
Sub-Component 2.2: Introduce New Demand-Driven Courses
Activity 2.2.1 Adapt and update market-based TVET courses
See Activity 2.1.3a
Activity 2.2.2 Train instructors on the new curricula
There are several new curricula going through the validation and endorsement
process, but no fully new technical curricula have been endorsed by TVEC to date.
24
Trainings for curricula development, career guidance and entrepreneurship
curricula, however, are currently being delivered in this quarter.
During this reporting period:
• 18 NAITA staff members were trained during the quarter on how to create
national competency standards;
• 40 Human Resource Development Officers were trained on Career
Counselling using the new career guidance curriculum developed together
with DME, SLF and YouLead in June;
• 30 Career Guidance Officers of the NYSC were trained on career counselling
using the new career guidance curriculum developed together with NYSC and
YouLead career guidance consultant, Ajith Bopitiya;
• YouLead trained 141 entrepreneurship instructors and training institute
managers in the new entrepreneurship development curricula.
Activity 2.2.4 Make use of technology to expand reach and assess progress
YouLead and TVEC developed an inter-institutional database of career guidance
officers and shared it among all vocational education stakeholders through the
National Vocational Career Guidance Steering Committee. Regional career guidance
officers of multiple vocational training institutions can now work together organizing
common career guidance activities in the regions with minimum repetition,
maximum productivity and lucrative institutional investments. The database can be
effectively used by district level vocational education committees for common
career guidance operations within their districts. YouLead will evolve this simple
database into an organized and informative web page with the second version of
the YouLead portal scheduled to be launched in Q4.
Sub-Component 2.3: Improve Teaching Staff's Technical, Pedagogical and
Presentation Skills
Activity: 2.3.1 Provide fast-track pedagogical training to improve trainers'
teaching skills
Public and private TVET institutions that closed for several weeks following the
Easter Sunday attacks have reopened and given priority to covering their syllabi. As
instructors could not be released, no pedagogy trainings took place in this quarter.
25
Activity 2.3.2 Institutionalize pedagogical teacher training
Discussions resumed this quarter with DTET to turn its Training Institute for
Technology Professionals (TITP) into a teacher training institute and home base for
the master trainers for MSDVT. YouLead will follow up in the next quarter to help
the unit develop a management plan to take over the master training program
upon the end of the project.
Sub-Component 2.4: Upgrade Instructional Equipment & Teaching
Materials
Activity 2.4.1 Perform a needs analysis on equipment and materials needed
A proposed equipment list for furniture, a mobile IT cart and other training
materials was developed, but the implementation is reliant on MSDVT making the
necessary building upgrades (largely removal of a few walls, painting, etc.). This
activity awaits a new ministry budget or support from the Sector Skills
Development Project (ADB-funded) to make the necessary upgrades. TITP is a unit
of DTET and the upgrade proposal was prepared by ASU volunteers in 2018.
Component 3: Increase Prospects for Successful Self-Employment
Overall Component Objective
The overall objective of this component is to help young entrepreneurs establish
new businesses and link them with financial institutions providing access to capital
to grow their businesses. This will be done through improved entrepreneurship
curricula, teaching, outreach and the channeling of students with the right
characteristics into training. It will also provide better access to finance for youth as
well as business mentoring and coaching services. To achieve this objective, the
program includes working with public and private training institutions to improve
entrepreneurship course content, financial institutions to address constraints faced
by young entrepreneurs applying for loans, and business organizations to recruit
and link business and peer mentors.
Sub-Component 3.1: Update Entrepreneurship Course Contents
Activity 3.1.1 Evaluate courses and revise content to better prepare for
self-employment
YouLead translated and published the Tamil version of its newly developed ED
curricula this quarter and began rolling it out with familiarization trainings for the
Sinhala version. The development of the curricula directly responds to industry
needs by providing standard training material to TVET institutions.
26
Activity 3.1.2 Develop and ensure the quality of sufficient entrepreneurship
trainers
Bank officers/ financial institutions officers training. Four trainings were
conducted during the quarter for staff of financial institutions to promote cash flow-
based lending for youth and women. YouLead expects the trained bank officers to
appraise loan applications based on cash-flow rather than the traditional collateral-
based practice. This will make it easier for more women and youth get loans to
start their own businesses. The changes in lending procedure are however
governed by bank policy and Central Bank regulations leading to delays in
implementation.
Entrepreneurship development curricula training of trainers. YouLead began
rolling out the newly developed Entrepreneurship Development (ED) curricula this
quarter. In five days of training sessions, 140 trainers from 10 TVETs were trained
on delivering the curricula. The sessions took place in Colombo, Kandy, Trincomalee
and Dickwella. The Business
Development Center (BDC)
conducted the five days of
training. YouLead expects the
curricula to be adopted at the
individual institutions, many of
which were involved in the actual
development process. Time
restrictions in delivery of the
curricula have emerged as a key
challenge. The time presently
allocated for ED courses ranges
from two to 14 days. The new curricula however are designed to be delivered over
the course of 44.5 days. Trainers are therefore unable to deliver the curricula
effectively until they are institutionalized. Representatives of the participating
institutions have suggested customization to counter this problem.
YouLead continues its partnership with the BDC to train TVET organizations with the
developed ED curricula. YouLead supported 10 TVET institutions providing five
training sessions for 129 nominated trainers. One training session in Trincomalee
was held in Tamil to accommodate 35 Tamil speaking trainers. To have equal
distribution of trainings, sessions were held in different districts. YouLead initially
planned to have all TOTs completed by July, however many were rescheduled
following the April 21 attacks.
Participants are trained on the ED curricula that they helped develop
27
Q3 Training of Trainers
Date Session Location No of Participants
13th-18th May 1st ED ToT Colombo 24
27th -31st May 2nd ED ToT Dickwella 34
10th -14th June 03rd ED ToT (Tamil) Trincomalee 34
10th -14th June 04th ED ToT Trincomalee 13
24th -31st June 05th ED ToT Kandy 24
Total 129
On June 9, YouLead held a discussion on
the progress of the ED curricula trainings
with all 11 TVET organizations involved in
its development and the Department of
Samurdhi Authority. The objective was to
discuss operational issues identified during
the TOT programs and determine the best
methods to implement the curricula at
institutional level. The main takeaway from
this meeting was the need to customize the
duration of the training to the individual
institute’s needs and determine the level of
depth this required. Several institutes
suggested a condensed version of training.
There was also a suggestion to have the ED
curricula nationally certified. This will be
followed up in Q4.
Woment’s Dvelopment Federation (WDF). YouLead remains fully engaged with
WDF, an organization based in Southern Sri Lanka operating with a membership of
over 60,000. The WDF’s mandate
is to help women uplift their
standards of living through
entrepreneurship with the help of
their financial arm, the
Janashaksthi Bank. Although they
assist their members to start
businesses, the mobilizers do not
have a standard structured
strategy to develop them as
entrepreneurs. YouLead held the
first of two two-day training
sessions for 86 WDF mobilizers to
develop Micro and SME
WDF mobilizers make ‘wade’ as part of their training on
entrepreneurship
28
entrepreneurs on May 23. The second session will take place in August and will
include field work assignments. The training program seeks to improve the field
officers’ technical skills enabling them to assess their clients, particularly youth, for
entrepreneurship development.
Samurdhi. YouLead continues to engage the Department of Samurdhi to develop
entrepreneurs within their target population. The Samurdhi field officers have
begun engaging their communities in entrepreneurship development. YouLead
focused on collecting accurate and timely data from the officials during the quarter.
Under the current agreement, the Department submits data in hard copy which
causes a lack in uniformity and long delays. YouLead is pursuing the possibility of
developing an online database to collect data.
Sub-Component 3.2: Develop and provide business development &
mentoring services
Activity 3.2.1 Establish business development and mentoring services
YouLead hired an Entrepreneurship Manager, Talal Rafi, this quarter to design and
develop program initiatives aiming to provide mentoring services for young
entrepreneurs. The Entrepreneurship Manager will establish and manage an
extensive network of volunteer mentors for new and potential young entrepreneurs.
The Entrepreneurship Manager has already established connection with
organizations such as Kandy Women’s Chamber Megapolis, Kandy Chamber of
Commerce, University of Peradeniya, Hatch, the Chamber of Young Lankan
Entrepreneurs (COYLE), and the Ratnapura Chamber of Commerce in his first
weeks of work.
Sub-Component 3.3: Improve Access to Affordable Finance
Activity 3.3.1 Link entrepreneurs to financial institutions serving business
start-up
Commercial banks and financial institutions in Sri Lanka are actively looking to
expand business-lending within the country to businesses in the SME sector. This is
however constrained by the fact that borrowers typically lack acceptable collateral.
YouLead developed a program for credit officers to appraise entrepreneurs’
applications for loans based on working capital and cashflow analysis.
YouLead focused on training officers of three micro finance institutions during this
quarter as the traditional banks were reluctant to schedule trainings during the
holiday months of April and May. One hundred and sixty eight officers working on
Micro and SME loans from Arthacharya Intermediary Ltd., Sarvodaya Development
Finance and HNB Finance Ltd. were trained in cash flow credit application appraisal.
29
Dates Micro/ Finance Institute Location No of Participants
29th May 2019 Arthavida Credit Officer training Hambantota 22
4th June 2019 Arthavida Credit Officer training Nikaweratiya 47
5th - 6th June 2019 HNB Finance Credit Officer training Kurunegala 46
14th June Sarvoday Development Finance Colombo 51
Total 166
Activity 3.3.2 Support the development of a USAID DCA
YouLead is also working closely with Hatton National Bank to use the USAID
Development Credit Authority (DCA) to support youth entrepreneurs who are
unable to offer collateral for their credit request with a part guarantee to cover
their credit exposure.
Outreach
YouLead’s communications outreach activities continue through traditional and
social media this quarter creating behavioral change and awareness campaigns on
priority industries, career guidance, entrepreneurship and gender normalization.
YouLead drafted its Communications Plan for June-December 2019 during this
quarter.
YouLead took the lead in supporting the #loveSriLanka campaign initiated by the
Sri Lanka Tourism Alliance, an initiative of the YouLead supported Sri Lanka
Tourism Skills Committee following the April 21 attacks. YouLead created content
for the campaign in the form of seven videos for the www.lovesrilanka.org website
and associated social media platform. Two of these were shared on the Alliances’
social media during the quarter including interviews with Fiona Milicinski and
Shaunagh Aluwihara, foreign nationals living and working in Sri Lanka.
The #IBuildSriLanka social media campaign was launched this quarter. The
campaign primarily focuses on engaging youth in the construction industry but has
a wider theme of unity and pulls together young men and women in all industries
as builders of the nation. The main objective of the campaign is to encourage
behavioral change by showing that there is dignity and prestige in YouLead’s
priority industries.
YouLead collected short interviews from the construction, tourism and ICT
industries this quarter with the intention of creating role model interviews for its
social media outreach. YouLead filmed nine youth from the construction industry
covering the occupations of mason, rigger, and electrician, four youth from the
tourism industry, three of them women, covering front office operations, guest
relations, kitchen staff and an environmentalist and, 11 youth from the ICT
industry, five of them women, covering software engineering, UX development,
30
human resources and digital marketing. These will be edited and shared during
coming quarters.
YouLead began the design and production of promotional material, posters and a
career guidance booklet this quarter. The materials will be used at schools, VT
institutes and career fairs and are designed pull youth towards YouLead’s social
media and the youlead.lk platform where they can get more information on
employment, careers, opportunities in priority industries and setting up their own
businesses.
2.1.3 Status of Subawards and Subcontracts
##
Sub
Award/
Contract #
Sub
Awardee/
Contractor
Name
Period of
Performance Currency LOP Budget
Expenses as of
March 31, 2019 %
01 175023 ASU June 06, 2017 to
April 30, 2021 US $ 704,518* 448,791 63.70%
02 175019 GC June 06, 2017 to
April 30, 2021 US $ 661,166.09* 247,511 37.43%
03 175020-30 Verité June 6, 2017 to
April 30, 2021 LKR 75,115,618 53,714,938 71.50%
04 175022 SFL July 03, 2017 to
April 30, 2021 LKR 19,098,074* 5,850,238 30.63%
05 175024 AmCham June 20, 2017 to
April 30, 2021 LKR 82,587,595 29,032,175 35.15%
06 175021 CCC June 06, 2017 to
April 30, 2021 LKR 37,440,275 12,025,014 32.11%
*Budget amount excludes cost share commitment.
2.1.4 Volunteer Assignments
International volunteers.
1. Consultant Bonnie Tam was scheduled to arrive in the country in April for the
Junior Achievement (JA) Pilot Training Program however, the assignment was
postponed following the April 21 attacks. Ms. Tam is now expected to arrive
on July 29.
Short term technical assistance (STTA). The following consultants are
continuing their short-term technical support to YouLead during this reporting
period:
31
1. IESC hired Dr. Prabath Karunanayake for the period of January 14 to June 30 as
a local consultant for technical curricula development for the construction trade.
His work continues in this quarter.
2. YouLead hired local consultant Srilal Miththapala to contribute his expertise in
the formation of the TSC comprising of industry leaders, representatives of the
Sri Lanka Institute of Tourism and Hotel Management (SLITHM), TVEC, Sri
Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA), CCC, and the Human Resources
(HR) Advisory subcommittee.
3. IESC recruited local consultant Nihal Dias to work with YouLead in the curricula
development process. Mr. Dias’ one-year engagement with YouLead which
started in January 2018 was extended to December 2019.
4. Natasha Gooneratne was hired as a local consultant starting May 9 for a period
of three months. She is responsible for developing content for the
www.lovesrilanka.org website and associated social media platforms.
5. YouLead hired Shehara de Silva as Senior Partnerships and Outreach Consultant
for the project. She will be working closely with the Partnerships Director and
Partnerships Manager to develop new partnerships in key project areas. Her
period of engagement is from June 3, 2019 to June 2, 2020.
2.2 Implementation Challenges and Lessons Learned
YouLead reported last quarter that it was still cautiously optimistic that results
targets would be achieved despite the setbacks of the constitutional crisis and the
government budget issues. The April 21 attacks, however, bring the ability to
achieve some of those results into question.
In addition, the October 2018 and April 2019 travel advisories have impacted the
project’s ability to recruit and field international volunteers which will likely make it
impossible to meet current cost-share commitments.
Major constraints this quarter include:
1. The Easter Sunday Attacks on April 21 caused logistical challenges and the
postponement of all trainings and career fairs for a few weeks.
2. Since the career fairs are multi-ethnic, multi-religious events, local authorities
are still wary of holding them in large, public spaces. This has resulted in some
fairs (e.g. Monaragala) being canceled, and others (e.g. Galle and Matara) being
moved into smaller venues that can be better controlled.
3. A complication with Microsoft’s preferred provider for localization and
maintenance for YouLead.lk that would have hindered sustainability of the
platform was resolved late in the quarter but has impacted the ability to meet
the indicator for the number of youth receiving career development services this
quarter.
4. The indicator for number of youth trained in entrepreneurship continues to lag
this quarter due to prioritization of upgrading the entrepreneurship curricula, but
32
with 13 institutions ready to start teaching the curricula—some starting next
quarter—this should recover quickly.
5. Partner banks are reluctant to provide any details of the approved entrepreneur
applications due to their customer privacy regulations. Conversations are still
going on to obtain anonymous participant information for YouLead while banking
officials retain the Personal Identifiable Information (PII) in their files.
6. The delay in identifying a suitable Entrepreneurship Manager and availability of
volunteer experts has hindered progress on developing mentorship services.
YouLead is structured with sustainability as a key goal, and the approach, therefore
involves reliance one a train-the-trainer model. The challenge with this model is
that project activities for YouLead are dependent of the training schedules of
counterparts.
The impact of activity delays is compounded when it comes to counting output
results due to the fact that the main outcome indicators—employment, career
counseling, start-ups—are one or more steps away from the direct project
intervention. For instance, the development of a new curriculum for MSDVT must
await: 1) the government’s validation and endorsement process; 2) the scheduling
of a new course (which typically happens in August or December); 3) the
identification and training of instructors; 4) the completion of a course (typically 6-
12 months); and 5) time for the student to find a job (1-6 months) before a new
job can be counted in project indicators. Other interventions and work with different
counterparts can result in speedier outcomes, but those outcomes are still a step or
two away from the direct intervention.
2.3 Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) Update
Annual Survey: YouLead hired an international consultant, Muaz Jalil, to develop
the annual survey research design and provide remote and in-country support
during the survey data collection and analysis and finalization of results. The survey
will provide a ratio for the P1 indicator by using public TVET institution’s enrollment
data. The consultant has completed the design and the approximate sample size for
the survey during this quarter. YouLead is presently seeking a survey company to
collect data from institutions and to conduct questionnaire/telephone survey. The
results will be included in YouLead’s FY2019 annual report. The following diagram
shows the impact channels relevant to the study and the usage of estimating
multiplier.
33
AMELP Progress: The detailed AMELP progress by each indicator is shown in
Annex A. Most of the indicators reported this quarter are showing progress.
Training of trainers sessions on YouLead-developed Entrepreneurship Development
training curricula commenced during the this quarter. However, a need for
customization of curricula to fit with institutions’ requirements was identified as a
key operationalization issue. Therefore, the progress under indicator 3.3: number of
youth trained in entrepreneurship skills, remains low. Due to the delays in receiving
supported business data from Samurdhi, this time progress of the indicator O3.1 is
not reported.
3. Integration of Cross Cutting Issues and USAID
Forward Priorities
3.1 Gender Equality and Female Empowerment
YouLead’s communications plan moves away from focusing on women in non-
traditional jobs this quarter to the normalization of female participation in the
priority sector industries. This is carried through all outreach materials covering
both traditional and social media.
YouLead’s social media outreach continues creating awareness and promoting gender
equality in the priority sectors jobs.
4. Planned Interventions for the Next Quarter (FY19
Q4)
ICT sector. Career guidance officer training. YouLead initiated discussions on
conducting training for career guidance officers as ICT change agents. This program
will be organized by YouLead in collaboration with SLASSCOM, ICTA, the ICT Sector
34
Skills Council, and TVEC. The program will train 50 career guidance officers
interested in promoting careers in the ICT sector. Scheduled to begin in July, the
pilot training hopes to create industry specific awareness among the participants.
The program will be adapted to YouLead’s other priority sectors based on the
success of the pilot.
Construction sector. YouLead is discussing a potential partnership with Maga
Engineering Ltd. to support a proposed TOT program for Master Trainers of the
Maga Training Institute.
Tourism industry. The success of the soft skills program at the University College
of Batangala has prompted the industry to request similar programs. YouLead will
conduct two to three programs for staff of member hotels of the Kandy Hoteliers
Association and Negombo Hoteliers Association. This comes at a proper time
considering the downturn in occupancy and availability of staff following the April
21 attacks.
YouLead will support the TSC with the development of the Tourism and Hospitality
Portal. YouLead will work with the selected vendor to ensure the needs and
expectations of the TSC are met in terms of site development and content
generation. This portal will include data collected by the Research Unit once it is
established.
YouLead will work in collaboration with the MDF and the CCC on establishing the
Research Unit, one the initiatives of the Tourism and Hospitality Workforce
Competitiveness Roadmap.
Entrepreneurship. YouLead will continue working with the BDC on TOTs for TVET
institutes for the ED curriculum. Discussions will be held with senior officials from all
11 TVET institutes who partnered with YouLead to develop the ED curricula on
findings and practical issues surfacing during the TOTs. Steps will be taken to
customize the curricula for the individual TVET institutes.
Entrepreneurship awareness programs will continue as well as ED training with the
BDC for potential youth and women entrepreneurs. An entrepreneurship video will
be developed to use as part of the entrepreneurship outreach program.
Data collection on financial assistance for micro/ SME startups will be collected.
Trainings on micro and SME lending will be held for credit officers of seven banks.
YouLead will support the Department of Samurdhi with entrepreneur development
and the collection of data.
35
Curricula development. Pedagogical teacher training will continue. YouLead plans
to include training on technical competencies for technical teacher training for the
public sector.
The revision of existing curricula, development of new ones and the validation and
endorsement process will continue.
Career counselor training. YouLead will organize an inter-institutional forum to
discuss the achievements of career counsellor trainings held thus far and map out
counsellors left to be trained to reach a common level of knowledge and skills in
career guidance. This will include multi-model interventions such as module-based
training, RPL and a series of workshops/ seminars to uplift the counsellors’
knowledge and skills in career guidance.
Effective career guidance for youth. YouLead will work with the district
secretaries of the remaining priority districts to organize district level career
guidance programs. The first pilot will begin with the support of the Kegalle District
Office on International Youth Day.
Information dissemination. YouLead is in the process of designing the second
version of the YouLead.lk portal with more dynamic and youth friendly content,
courses and information. Registrations are scheduled for the next quarter. The
improved interface will have regional information centers connected with the central
portal for information sharing.
Creating awareness, promoting and mapping of apprenticeship
opportunities. YouLead is piloting a model with the Industries Department of
Jaffna to map out industries in Northern province willing to offer apprenticeship
opportunities and on the job training. After a successful data collection initiative,
YouLead will work together with NAITA and VTA to organize an apprenticeship
awareness program for the selected organizations.
Inter-institutional partnerships for career guidance. YouLead is in the process
of discussing formal partnerships and a structured workplan with the NYSC and
MOE for the next two years on career guidance and information dissemination.
Apprenticeship awareness among youth. YouLead, NAITA and the NYSC wishes
to launch a Career Bus dedicated to promoting career guidance and apprenticeship
awareness at the regional level commencing from next quarter.
Communications. YouLead is in the process of selecting a new contractor to
manage its traditional and social media. The contract with the new company will be
inked early in the next quarter. YouLead plans to boost its media and outreach
36
campaigns during the next two quarters to push registrations to the
www.youlead.lk portal with a focus on the dissemination of information as per the
Communications Plan for the rest of the calendar year.
5. Financial Management
YouLead Project Spending* USD
Budget Categories Budgeted Spent as of June 2019 Balance Remaining
PERSONNEL 1,798,598.89 1,033,517.75 765,081.14
FRINGE BENEFITS 509,396.79 267,119.73 242,277.06
TRAVEL & PER DIEM 1,251,958.66 309,414.87 942,543.79
EQUIPMENT 7,500.00 69,486.68 (61,986.68)
SUPPLIES 263,969.62 92,123.22 171,846.40
CONTRACTUAL/SUBAWARDS 3,687,276.22 1,437,252.49 2,250,023.73
OTHER DIRECT COSTS 1,851,487.68 845,446.47 1,006,041.21
IESC INDIRECT COSTS 2,629,673.43 1,505,664.19 817,126.72
VEGA INDIRECT COSTS 306,882.52 307,311.80 (429.28)
TOTAL PROGRAM COSTS 11,999,861.23 5,867,337.20 6,132,524.09
COST SHARE* 1,863,199.95 536,728.48 1,326,471.47
TOTAL PROGRAM VALUE 13,863,061.24 6,404,065.68 7,458,995.56
*Includes sub partners cost-share as well.
6. Cost Share and Leverage
The cost share and leverage table below provides the value of cost share and
leverage that YouLead was able to generate between June 2017 and June 30, 2019.
The cumulative cost share generated by YouLead was USD 536,728 and leverage
was USD 3,000,000. Cost share includes long-term and short-term volunteers from
IESC, ASU, and GC, Project Director’s donated time to YouLead, and the value of
donated services by local partners as listed below.
YouLead has requested that USAID Sri Lanka reduce the life of program cost share
commitment of $1,863,200 by converting a total of $1,211,800 to leverage. The
request was made following the constitutional crisis in 2018 coupled with the Easter
Sunday bombing on April 21, 2019 in Sri Lanka, and the adverse impact of these
events on mobilizing international volunteers. The approval is pending at the time
of reporting.
37
Cost Share and Leverage USD
## Sub Awardee/ Contractor/ Institution
Cost Share
(cumulative) Leverage cumulative
(June 2017 to
June 2019) (June 2017 to June 2019)
01 Ceylon Chamber of Commerce $114.65
02 IESC, ASU, and GC Volunteers Cost Share $521,948.01
03 MSDVT $1,553.03
04 Hambantota Chamber of Commerce $2,847.86
05 Chamber of Commerce and Industries of Yarlpanam $2,880.08
06 Chamber of Commerce and Industry – Central Province $2,354.26
07 Kawantissa Vocational Training Center $65.10
08 Ednext Analytics Pvt Ltd $4,965.49
09 Microsoft YouthWorks Platform $3,000,000
Total 536,728.48 $3,000,000
38
Annex A: AMELP Progress Summary
##
You
Lead
#
US
AID
F
Indi
cato
r #
Indicator
Unit/
Reporting
Frequency
Disaggregation Target
FY18
Cumulat
ive
Actual
FY18
%
progres
s FY18
Target
FY19
Actual
FY19Q3
Cumulat
ive
Actual
FY19
%
progre
ss
FY19
Target
FY20
Target
FY21
Target
LOP
Cumulative
Actual LOP
%
progre
ss
LOP
1 P1
Number of individuals with new
or better employment following
participation of USG-assisted
workforce development
programs
Number/
Annually
Aggregate 478 786 164% 5,563 N/A N/A N/A 14,643 19,343 40,335 786 2%
# of Female 72 414 575% 1,113 N/A N/A N/A 3,661 5,163 10,351 414 4%
# of Male 406 372 92% 4,450 N/A N/A N/A 10,982 14,180 29,984 372 1%
Youth (16-35) N/A 758 N/A 5,330 N/A N/A N/A 14,043 18,556 38,687 758 2%
2 O1.1 EG.6-4
Number of individuals with new
employment following
completion of USG- assisted
workforce development
programs
Number/
Annually
Aggregate N/A 705 N/A 3,931 N/A N/A N/A 9,814 12,971 27,421 705 3%
# of Female N/A 382 N/A 798 N/A N/A N/A 2,491 3,513 7,184 382 5%
# of Male N/A 323 N/A 3,133 N/A N/A N/A 7,323 9,458 20,237 323 2%
3 1.1 EG.6-3
Number of individuals who
complete USG-assisted
workforce development
programs
Number/
Quarterly
Aggregate 2,125 1,676 79% 7,898 3,505 9,998 127% 15,035 19,424 44,033 11,674 27%
# of Female 319 742 233% 1,580 1,844 5,191 329% 3,759 5,185 11,266 5,933 53%
# of Male 1,806 934 52% 6,318 1,635 4,781 76% 11,276 14,239 32,767 5,715 17%
Youth (16-35) N/A 1,243 N/A 5,858 3,095 8,328 142% 11,151 14,406 32,658 9,571 29%
4 1.2 Number of youth provided
career and placement services
Number/
Quarterly
Aggregate N/A 204 N/A 15,621 577 2,300 15% 29,100 52,100 97,025 2,504 3%
# of Female N/A 141 N/A 3,124 389 1,545 49% 7,275 13,816 24,356 1,686 7%
# of Male N/A 63 N/A 12,497 188 752 6% 21,825 38,284 72,669 815 1%
5 O2.1
Number of local businesses
offering jobs to project
beneficiaries
Number/
Annually Aggregate 189 118 62% 1,961 N/A N/A N/A 4,725 4,725 11,529 121 1%
6 O2.2 Percent of trainers/ counselors
with improved knowledge/ skills
Percent/
Quarterly Aggregate 80% 95% 119% 80% 62% 76% 95% 80% 80% 80% 86% 107%
7 2.1 Number of technical curricula
developed or improved
Number/
Quarterly
Aggregate 17 30 176% 7 3 26 371% 20 0 57 56 98%
Improved 15 29 193% 1 2 10 1000% 3 0 33 39 118%
Developed 2 1 50% 6 1 16 267% 17 0 24 17 71%
8 2.2 Number of trainers receiving
training by YouLead
Number/
Quarterly
Aggregate 129 428 332% 121 141 362 299% 490 396 1,435 790 55%
# of Female 19 188 989% 24 56 112 467% 123 106 441 300 68%
# of Male 110 240 218% 97 85 248 256% 367 290 994 488 49%
39
##
You
Lead
#
US
AID
F
Indi
cato
r #
Indicator
Unit/
Reporting
Frequency
Disaggregation Target
FY18
Cumulat
ive
Actual
FY18
%
progres
s FY18
Target
FY19
Actual
FY19Q3
Cumulat
ive
Actual
FY19
%
progre
ss
FY19
Target
FY20
Target
FY21
Target
LOP
Cumulative
Actual LOP
%
progre
ss
LOP
9 2.3
Number of counselors trained
to better match students to
careers
Number/
Quarterly
Aggregate 45 68 151% 473 118 428 90% 226 496 1,263 496 39%
# of Female 7 28 400% 95 51 157 165% 57 153 333 185 56%
# of Male 38 40 105% 378 67 271 72% 169 343 930 311 33%
10 O3.1 Number of new businesses
setup following USG assistance
Number/
Quarterly
Aggregate N/A N/A N/A 600 0 0 0% 95 475 1,170 0 0%
# of Female N/A N/A N/A 120 0 0 0% 24 127 271 0 0%
# of Male N/A N/A N/A 480 0 0 0% 71 348 899 0 0%
Youth (16-35) N/A N/A N/A 400 0 0 0% 63 317 780 0 0%
11 3.1
Number of Financial Institution
staff receiving training related
to increasing women and youth
run enterprises access to
financial services
Numbers/
Quarterly
Aggregate N/A N/A N/A 500 167 736 147% 100 50 650 736 113%
# of Female N/A N/A N/A 100 95 269 269% 25 13 138 269 195%
# of Male N/A N/A N/A 400 71 465 116% 75 37 512 465 91%
12 3.2
Number of financial
intermediaries increasing
access to financial services for
women and youth run
enterprises following USG
assistance.
Numbers/
Semi
Annually
Aggregate 3 8 267% 1 N/A N/A N/A 0 0 9 9 100%
# Banks 6 N/A N/A N/A N/A 6 6 100%
# Others 2 N/A N/A N/A N/A 3 3 100%
13 3.3 Number of youth trained in
entrepreneurship skills
Numbers/
Quarterly
Aggregate 260 0 0 1,060 0 13 1% 1,040 1,380 3,480 13 0%
# of Female 39 0 0 212 0 11 5% 260 411 883 11 1%
# of Male 221 0 0 848 0 2 0% 780 969 2,597 2 0%
14 CRS GNDR-2
Proportion of female
participants in USG-assisted
programs designed to increase
productive resources
Number/
Quarterly
Aggregate 15% 49% 326% 20% 53% 53% 265% 25% 27% 25% 53% 208%
# of Female 384 607 158% 2,131 1,718 4,872 229% 4,248 5,931 12,917 5,479 42%
# of Participants 2559 1,241 48% 10,652 3,264 9,185 86% 16,986 22,221 51,100 10,426 20%
40
##
You
Lead
#
US
AID
F
Indi
cato
r #
Indicator
Unit/
Reporting
Frequency
Disaggregation Target
FY18
Cumulat
ive
Actual
FY18
%
progres
s FY18
Target
FY19
Actual
FY19Q3
Cumulat
ive
Actual
FY19
%
progre
ss
FY19
Target
FY20
Target
FY21
Target
LOP
Cumulative
Actual LOP
%
progre
ss
LOP
15 CRS YOUTH-
1
Number of youth at risk of
violence trained in social or
leadership skills through USG
assisted programs
Number/
Quarterly
Aggregate 1,312 803 61% 5,046 1,815 6,936 137% 8,835 11,442 26,126 7,739 30%
# of Female 197 409 208% 695 885 3,676 529% 2,209 3,219 6,532 4,085 63%
# of Male 1,115 394 35% 4,351 930 3,260 75% 6,626 8,223 19,594 3,654 19%
# of females 15-
19 0 3 127 532 535
# of females 20-
24 20 373 463 1,917 2,290
# of females 25-
29 177 33 295 1,227 1,260
# of males 15-
19 0 86 174 531 617
# of males 20-
24 112 282 472 1,726 2,008
# of males 25-
29 1,003 26 284 1,003 1,029
41
Annex B: TraiNet Report
42
Annex C: Success Story
YouLead Catalyzes Rapid Response initiative to Uplift Sri
Lanka’s Tourism Industry
Facilitating a rapid response private
sector initiative, YouLead supported
a 2 day workshop designed to
strengthen the Tourism industry
partnerships and sector coordination
that grew from a response to the
Easter Sunday attacks on April 21.
On July 8 and 9, over 80 donor
representatives and tourism and
marketing experts from 12 different
organizations came together to
agree on critical initiatives and an action plan.
The workshop leveraged the success of the Sri Lanka Tourism Alliance’s
#LoveSriLanka campaign which was launched in the weeks after the attacks.
The USAID-created Tourism Skills Committee (TSC), a private sector body
empowered by the YouLead project to increase employment for youth in the
tourism industry, rose up to form the Alliance. Within days, www.lovesrilanka.org
was launched with pro-bono website design and management.
The aim of the group is to provide unified messaging. The Alliance successfully
rallied over 1,000 domestic and international tourism organizations behind a
common cause to carry the momentum forward and develop an industry-led action
plan for recovery and resilience.
The Tourism Alliance's #loveSriLanka team
43
USAID also supported the Alliance with professional management and a crisis
communications expert through the Supporting Accelerated Investment in Sri Lanka
(SAIL) project. Two Australian-funded projects collaborated with USAID to fund the
development of the recovery action plan.
The #loveSriLanka campaign had 1,194 followers on Facebook, 1,096 on Instagram
and 68 on Twitter as of June 30, 2019 and continues to gain traction. The Google
ads campaign based on ‘is Sri Lanka safe’ searches delivered 21,824 impressions
and covered approximately 80% of safety related searches for Sri Lanka.
“Without the website and its related social media feeds, potential tourists
would have remained confused and the recovery process would drag out
for many months and millions of dollars in additional losses.”
Malik Fernando, Managing Director of Resplendent Ceylon and Chairman of the
Tourism Alliance’s Advisory Group
44
Annex D: Success Story
Over 2,400 youth participate in the first career fairs since the
Easter Sunday attacks
Over 2,400 young men and
women flocked to the career
fairs in Galle and Matara, the
first to be held after the April 21
Easter Sunday attacks.
The fairs were organized by
YouLead in coordination with the
Department of Manpower and
Employment (DME) and
CareerMe, Sri Lanka’s first
dedicated career guidance
website.
The career fairs, which were
postponed because of security issues after the attacks, have proven to be very
popular with students and youth. YouLead has received many requests to hold
more fairs in other parts of the country.
The fairs were relaunched in Galle and Matara on June 22. The Galle Career Fair
was empowered with 45 private companies and the event drew more than 800
participants, 740 of whom were under the age of 35 and 58% were women. More
than 240 youth took the CareerMe psychometric career test localized by YouLead
and received one-on-one career guidance from YouLead trained career development
officers. The Matara Career Fair drew more than 1,600 women and men.
YouLead staff member assists a visitor with the online career
test
“I never realized how many opportunities there are for young people. It was a
great surprise to find I can do something that really interests me. I thought
the only option was to work in a boring office somewhere. Now I have an idea
to work on.”
Nimnas Nazeem, 25, Job seeker
45
During both the events the participating private companies conducted on-the-spot
interviews for youth seeking jobs and training and seven training institutions
promoted their courses and services in vocational education.
Several YouLead trained inspectors from the National Apprenticeship and Industrial
Training Authority (NAITA) were also available to advise youth on apprenticeship
opportunities in the region.
YouLead and the DME are planning six more career fairs this year focusing on
districts with the highest youth unemployment as identified by YouLead’s Youth and
Labor Market Assessment.
46
Annex E: Success Story
Future Bridge links TVET students with the ICT industry
YouLead in partnership with the Sri
Lanka Association of Software and
Services Companies (SLASSCOM) and
the Information and Communications
Technology (ICT) Skills Council held
the second phase of the pilot Future
Bridge Program on June 7.
Launched in April 2019, Bridge is an
online learning and evaluation portal
and was designed to draw school
leavers to the ICT industry bridging the
existing skills gap.
Of the participants, 26 Vocational Training Authority (VTA) students, eight of them
young women, took part in phase two. The main objective of this phase was to
connect the students with mentors and industry professionals. The students had the
opportunity to ask questions and receive guidance for the next step of the program.
L.H.A.I. Sajith, ICT instructor from VTA’s Veyangoda Center, said the exposure the
students received under phase two was very important. He said the biggest issue
vocational training faced was the lack of links between the institutions and the
industry.
In addition to having fun, the students said the main advantages of the Bridge
Program were that it was on-line and accessible at any time.
Bridge students meet industry professionals under
phase two of the program
47
Since, the online portal was
launched, 406 students have
enrolled in the program, 41% of
them female and 61% students of
TVET institutions.
About 79 students have
progressed from the basic to the
advanced level and are currently
completing the final level of
technical assessments.
The pilot will be completed in December 2019 and selected students will be offered
internships in the new year.
“This is the first time I’ve ever done an
online course. Today’s program was
very important. We met people from
the industry who shared their ideas
and advised us”.
Ayoma Rathmali Bulathsinghala, 27, ICT
NVQ Level 5 student